Replacing the antiquated Bay Bridge will start with the arrival of stone and other material at the site come January, city council heard Monday.

Coun. Jack Miller said it is a project that has to be done and council took a step forward by green-lighting $176,000 to Bytown Engineering-Sanchez Engineering Joint Venture to manage the project.

Another $742,409, plus HST ($838,922), was also approved by council Monday to the same firm for design of the southerly supportive embankment for the new bridge.

“The Bay Bridge has been identified as number one priority for replacement,” said Miller. “We're going to be using a fair amount of gas tax transfer funds. That will offset some but not all of the costs”

Council will draw on about $7 million from gas tax transfer funds to cover the roughly $13 million required to cover the bridge replacement.

He said the project also includes significant redevelopment of the Dundas Street strip from Coleman Street up to the new intersection.

“It's good to see that project finally going,” Miller said. “With a rapidly deteriorating overpass, it needed to be addressed.”

The contract awarded by council will address the south approach to the new structure, spanning from the entrance to Zwicks Park up to the bridge, said Ray Ford, Belleville's manager of engineering.

“We're going to build a new bridge adjacent to the existing bridge,” Ford said.

Before that can be done, truckloads of fill material will be brought in throughout January, in advance of rebuilding of the roadway on the south side of the bridge.

“It will widen the embankments on there so we can build the new roadway on top,” he said.

All the material will be placed in Zwicks Park so it can have a chance to settle. Much attention will be paid to the dumping operation, as material is placed on top of earth at Zwicks Park, a former landfill site, Ford said.

“It is being built over a closed landfill, so we have to have environmental monitoring plans in place,” he said.

The material compiling work is tagged for a February completion date. Motorists should brace for traffic disruptions as “there will be a lot of truck traffic coming and going from the Zwicks location,” he said. “It will be for a short duration.”